Lionel Messi felt like the world was crumbling down on him after missing that penalty

The famous and always risky Panenka-styled penalty kick was popularized by Czech player Antonin Panenka during the 1976 European Championship. The shot consists on lobbing the ball slowly in order to trick the goalie, it doesn’t always work. In fact, some of the greatest players in history have missed this shot and suffered over it. Such is the case of Lionel Messi, who had been talking about it with some of his teammates and dared to attempt it at the penalty shootouts against Ecuador. The shot struck the bar and Messi wasn’t able to help Argentina. However, another heroic performance from Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martinez helped everybody forget about this blunder. But not Messi, he was pissed off after the game.

Speaking to TyC Sports, Leo said this: “I was very angry, I was convinced that I would take it like that. I had spoken with Dibu (Martinez), with (Geronimo) Rulli, I had taken a couple of penalties. I hadn’t practised, but I spoke with them. I had been taking several cross-shots, in fact the goalkeeper dived for a cross-shot, I tried to touch it and it went high. I’ve been trying to get rid of the discomfort I had, the pain, training little by little, feeling a little scared, letting go little by little. In the last training sessions I felt better and I thought I could be there. I felt fine, I had no discomfort, nothing. There is always a bit of psychological fear of having an injury or discomfort, but at a muscular level I had nothing. (Scaloni) asked me if I was ready to play and I said yes.”

Leo Messi is not at 100%

It is important to note that Leo Messi is not at 100% of his capabilities because he is carrying muscular issues. throughout the entire tournament, the Argentine captain has been threading lightly and he even missed major parts of the Copa America group stage. It hasn’t been the best tournament performance from Leo due to these physical problems. But the rest of the Argentina squad have always kept responding when he is not at 100%. For now, Argentina is installed in the Copa America semifinals and they are well on their way to another great showing. The entire country is praying that Messi can recover completely in order to deliver another great semifinals performance. This is his Instagram reaction after the victory.